ASUS PA246Q: 24-inch, 1920x1200, IPS

Stupid price fixing BS. This is $200 more than the NEC MultiSync EA231WMI-BK for just 1 extra inch.
 
I know. I was considering the EA231WMi too. But I ended up buying the PA246Q. For these reasons:

The ASUS has HDMI, the NEC doens't. I need HDMI. (however I could use a DVI-HDMI adapter on the NEC)
The ASUS is 8 ms response time, the NEC is 14 ms.
Both monitors have low input lag.
I don't need speakers in a monitor (like those the EA231WMi has on it)
The ASUS comes factory calibrated.

So it depends on you needs.

Also the ASUS is wide-gamut if you need that. I don't! I use sRGB mode all the time.
 
My PA246Q blanks for a second, about once or twice while it is still warming up. Has anyone with this monitor observed this?

Thanks.
 
maktester said:
Hey guys finaly this monitor shows up on the newegg LG E2370V-BF Black 23" IPS Panel Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor
It was adverties as gaming ips panel. The resolution is not x 1200 and its 23" and not 24" but originaly it was expected to have a price of 400.00
and now its 260 dollars whay do you think? I was gonna get pa246q but held off because of the pixel issues with everyother monitor it seems. and now asus changed the policy but this baby (e2370v) shows up at half the price. I need best gaming monitor but money as always is certanly a factor as well. Thanks for any advise.
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My honest opinion is that if you are primarily interested in gaming, you should get a 120hz monitor. I am a *huge* IPS fan, but, it's horses for courses, and for fps, arcade and RTS gaming, I recommend a 120hz monitor.

I run two monitors, and the 2nd one is IPS. If you need portrait mode on your monitor (or for reading text in general), the extra pixels on a 1920x1200 matter a little bit more, for gaming and video, 1920x1080 is fine, IMHO. But again, if it's only 1 monitor, go for a 120hz. If it's 2 monitors, I'd say 120hz for main monitor, and a 1920x1200 IPS (or VA) for the 2nd.
 
ShogoXT said:
I have had the PA246Q for a bit now and have done alot of testing on the colors. I THOUGHT using a camera (not a good one) that the input lag was about 20-40, but im still able to get ace on BFBC2 as usual. My old display was the S-PVA Gateway FPD2485W, one of the better ones out there.

I bought the ZR24W first and immediately HATED the black levels of IPS panels. No matter the brightness levels, everything dark was noticeably blending in and detail was lost. My gateway died because of blown caps so I had no choice, but to get a new one. I also hated the glow on the bottom left. That plus 2 dead pixels caused me to return it.

In terms of black level the PA246Q despite the reviews seems a bit better, but still not nearly as good as my S-PVA (RIP). It does have noticeable AG coating causing white screens to sparkle a bit. Annoying but I guess I can deal with it. On a black screen the black glow is not as bad as the ZR24W (did I mention I miss my good ol PVA?) as im currently using 25 brightness. I plan to try to turn it down further, but I can only go so far til its too dark for me to tolerate.

In all aspects, besides the AG coating and input lag I can say the PA246Q is BETTER, if thats what you guys are wondering.

I thoroughly read the prad.de review and was comparing their findings to my display. The BIG ISSUE that they had that shows that U2410 shares same electronics was the USER SETTING linear color uniformity. These issues do not exist on standard and other options (I use sRGB+ calibration). Glow uniformity is fine, but what I think they mean is something that might have happened to me while I was calibrating as well. USER option is the only way to get to the RGB gain and offset options, but when I tried to perfectly match the RGB sliders to be perfect + calibration, I still had noticeable color issues. The biggest of all being that solid RED colors would be borderline orange or unnecessarily bright.

If im not just being a noob about it, and its not the fact that I should have been using sRGB in the first place (I thought it was that I was using a wide gamut setting and it was off for my color depth, according to xbitlabs) , then I may still need to check out the standard settings, because sRGB doesnt even allow me to mess with contrast, only brightness and nothing else.

This isnt a well written review, but I have been reading this thread for a while and I felt you deserved to know my experiences. No dead pixels btw so all good there.

If you have any questions please ask.
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Thank you very much for this, it is a very helpful evaluation. In the sRGB + calibration settings, were you able to dial things in pretty well as far as color goes?

The hardware canucks review implied that dE was quite small even out of the box, but my bigger concern was if there was increased lag (as with the 2410) in sRGB mode (not a deal breaker for me), and more importantly if there was any color dithering in sRGB?

I deal with zoomed in gradients and such, and I don't like display-induced color dithering, it makes it hard to dial things in right
 
An update for you Sethk. I have a Spyder2Pro that ive been using to calibrate the monitor. The colors are pretty good on the monitor but the calibration tool seems to put it a little warmer it seems. Right now I used the 2.2 : Native mode so it didnt change the colors too much. Instead I now have been fiddling with the luminosity settings. Setting black to 0.1 and white to 140 or so (tool still read it as over 180 and failing on white, but i dont care about white) seems to have improved black levels a little bit and made the glow a little less noticeable i suppose.

I have to use sRGB or else the Spyder2 will not calibrate correctly and colors seem off. I use most everything for media anyway so if its not sRGB, then it wont suit my needs. As for banding, I used to have banding on my S-PVA and the PA246Q being a P-IPS with 1 billion color support shows no noticable dithering or banding, which is a plus. So to answer your question, no there is no dithering in sRGB mode.

As for blinking, this is mentioned in another thread, but it mostly happens on the HDMI connection only. I had this as well when testing all input types. It would blink for a second every 30 minutes or so. Currently back to using DisplayPort.

No games have been an issue and I can play competitive.
 
OC_Seer said:
Hi,

I just wanted to let everyone know who interested in this display that the PA246Q now carries a ZBD (Zero Bright Dot) replacement policy. You can contact ASUS customer service at 812-282-2787 for my details.
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Is this still the case? I can't seem to find this on newegg.com or on ASUS's website like I used to be able to.
 
ShogoXT said:
An update for you Sethk. I have a Spyder2Pro that ive been using to calibrate the monitor. The colors are pretty good on the monitor but the calibration tool seems to put it a little warmer it seems. Right now I used the 2.2 : Native mode so it didnt change the colors too much. Instead I now have been fiddling with the luminosity settings. Setting black to 0.1 and white to 140 or so (tool still read it as over 180 and failing on white, but i dont care about white) seems to have improved black levels a little bit and made the glow a little less noticeable i suppose.

I have to use sRGB or else the Spyder2 will not calibrate correctly and colors seem off. I use most everything for media anyway so if its not sRGB, then it wont suit my needs. As for banding, I used to have banding on my S-PVA and the PA246Q being a P-IPS with 1 billion color support shows no noticable dithering or banding, which is a plus. So to answer your question, no there is no dithering in sRGB mode.

As for blinking, this is mentioned in another thread, but it mostly happens on the HDMI connection only. I had this as well when testing all input types. It would blink for a second every 30 minutes or so. Currently back to using DisplayPort.

No games have been an issue and I can play competitive.
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Your graphics card is from nVidia or ATI? I observe the blinking only on the nVidia card from my laptop. The ATI 3650HD from my desktop doesn't blink on HDMI.
 
>> the PA246Q now carries a ZBD (Zero Bright Dot) replacement policy.
>
> Is this still the case? I can't seem to find this on newegg.com or
> on ASUS's website like I used to be able to.

The PA246Q has a zero bright dot, 5 dark dot policy.

http://service.asus.com/ZBD.html
 
Specs are as follows:
Core i7 920 / 6gb ram / Vista 64bit / Radeon 5870 / X-fi SB / PA246Q

For the people that dont have this monitor feel free to ask me questions, I can probably check some stuff for you all on the monitor.
 
Thanks for the update - BTW for all the those on the fence, tomorrow is the last day for the $60 off coupon on Newegg. I bit.

ShogoXT said:
An update for you Sethk. I have a Spyder2Pro that ive been using to calibrate the monitor. The colors are pretty good on the monitor but the calibration tool seems to put it a little warmer it seems. Right now I used the 2.2 : Native mode so it didnt change the colors too much. Instead I now have been fiddling with the luminosity settings. Setting black to 0.1 and white to 140 or so (tool still read it as over 180 and failing on white, but i dont care about white) seems to have improved black levels a little bit and made the glow a little less noticeable i suppose.

I have to use sRGB or else the Spyder2 will not calibrate correctly and colors seem off. I use most everything for media anyway so if its not sRGB, then it wont suit my needs. As for banding, I used to have banding on my S-PVA and the PA246Q being a P-IPS with 1 billion color support shows no noticable dithering or banding, which is a plus. So to answer your question, no there is no dithering in sRGB mode.

As for blinking, this is mentioned in another thread, but it mostly happens on the HDMI connection only. I had this as well when testing all input types. It would blink for a second every 30 minutes or so. Currently back to using DisplayPort.

No games have been an issue and I can play competitive.
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sethk said:
Thanks for the update - BTW for all the those on the fence, tomorrow is the last day for the $60 off coupon on Newegg. I bit.
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And last Wednesday I bit on an open box one for $346.99 + $20.73 (S/H) = $367.72. Talk about a crapshoot. Open box + reliably unreliable PA246Q quality control makes for about the same odds as three card monte. But I've had good luck RMA-ing open box to the manufacturer, in essence just flipping them for a known working unit. ATM I get good shipping prices through my employer so it's a good time for a gamble.

If the first unit works, though, the $367.72 price tag may make the panel's quirks more palatable.

Ugly™
 
excuseme, can i ask you how is the Ag coating in this ips ?
i know that usually the ips monitor have aggressive coating, and cause eyestrain, grainy effects, and hard text reading.
 
Before I got the ASUS PA246Q I bought a NEC EA232WMI. I ended up returning the EA232WMI due to it's backlight bleed. I can tell you that the AG coating on the ASUS is less noticeable than the one on the NEC. Both monitors are IPS based. The AG coating of the PA246Q doesn't bother me at all.
 
engine said:
Before I got the ASUS PA246Q I bought a NEC EA232WMI. I ended up returning the EA232WMI due to it's backlight bleed. I can tell you that the AG coating on the ASUS is less noticeable than the one on the NEC. Both monitors are IPS based. The AG coating of the PA246Q doesn't bother me at all.
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the coating is less noticeable OK ! but can u see it ?
is lighter like TN or only lighter than other IPS ?
 
I have 3 for months now and I have one single bright green pixel on my left LCD. It is from my doberman jumping on my lap, all 70lbs of her, knocking my keyboard up into the panel. Anyways Asus has a zero bright pioxel warranty on these now so I may swap it later at some point but I dont even notice the single pixel since the pirch is so small on these panels.

Wonderful little IPS panels for sure. I can tell the color definition FAR surpasses any other TN or VA I have ever seen before.
 
have u any difficolult to text reading and internet browsing ?
for browsing or read since some hours is ideal or not ?
cause any sort of eyestrain this monitor when u look or read for many time ?
 
aloper said:
Ok, just got my ASUS PA246Q setup and so far, so good! Started up Dead Pixel Tester and manually cycled through B, W, R, G, B and no dead pixels! Need to put in some more time with it but some first impressions...

Compared to my Dell U2410...
The anti-glare coating is noticeably better than what is on the U2410. It's there but certainly far less. I would say maybe 30-40% less noticeable, at least to me. That alone has made it worthwhile to keep the Asus! I love the Dell but it's anti-glare coating would drive me nuts editing photos in Lightroom because I thought I was seeing high ISO noise when in fact it was the coating on the monitor...


Al
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aloper said:
Here are my updated thoughts as of now…And I’m mainly comparing it to the Dell U2410…I’m not a monitor expert in any way also so these are my subjective opinions…


Anti-glare coating compared to the Dell U2410:
After comparing images from my Lightroom catalog, side by side between the two, the Asus coating is not as severe. It’s there but I would guess it’s about 10 to 20% less noticeable. They may be exactly the same for all I know but if so, the Asus coating is more uniform and even and maybe that is the reason. When I compare gradients in color swatches between the two, the Dell just looks “dirtier” than the Asus because of the coating. From a distance, you can’t really tell but when you zoom in images, you can. Plus, text seems "slightly" shaper on the Asus which might be a result of the lighter or better coating…
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u have say 2 different comment for the same question.
why ?

before u say that asus coating is much better than u2410, after u say that asus coating is only less better.

Why ?
 
senna89 said:
u have say 2 different comment for the same question.
why ?

before u say that asus coating is much better than u2410, after u say that asus coating is only less better.

Why ?
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Because in reality there is likely minimal or no difference.

These are clearly using the same panel, it seems very unlikely that ASUS of all manufacturers convinced LG to give them a special coating that not even NEC gets on high end monitors or Dell gets on low end monitors.

If there is an actual difference, it is most likely just a batch difference.

Also note that the visibility of AG coating is highly dependent on background color, so it also follows that it will be highly dependent on calibration.

Calibrate these screens precisely and identically and have someone else arrange the screens with some kind of cover so you don't know which is which, and it is my bet that it would be impossible to tell the difference.
 
senna89 said:
have u any difficolult to text reading and internet browsing ?
for browsing or read since some hours is ideal or not ?
cause any sort of eyestrain this monitor when u look or read for many time ?
Click to expand...

When I first got it maybe, but I turned the brightness down to 30 I think and then it was fine. I think lowering the brightness also reduces the glow a bit, but if you turn it down too much you lose contrast and dark detail.
 
Snowdog said:
Because in reality there is likely minimal or no difference.

These are clearly using the same panel, it seems very unlikely that ASUS of all manufacturers convinced LG to give them a special coating that not even NEC gets on high end monitors or Dell gets on low end monitors.

If there is an actual difference, it is most likely just a batch difference.

Also note that the visibility of AG coating is highly dependent on background color, so it also follows that it will be highly dependent on calibration.

Calibrate these screens precisely and identically and have someone else arrange the screens with some kind of cover so you don't know which is which, and it is my bet that it would be impossible to tell the difference.
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the U2410 coating is very bad, if the PA246q is only little less better, this means that the pa246q coating is heavy.
i search a restful good quality monitor, for reading and with clean whites without any form of grainy at least as the TN coating.
 
senna89 said:
i search a restful good quality monitor, for reading and with clean whites without any form of grainy at least as the TN coating.
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Then get the Samsung 2333T. Obviously LG IPS panels are not right for you.
 
If im not a avid gamer but I want a nice upgrade from my ViewSonic VX2025wm, would this be worth the cost vs a Dell? I Like I can do Bill me Later on Newegg is why. I honestly don't care about input lag or the color acuraccy like alot of die hard LCD users demand or that the blacks arn't perfect. I won't be watching Blue Ray's on this, mostly video editing with movie maker, web surfing, multitasking and light game like Starcraft 2, Risk, Team Fortress and BF1942 widescreen hacked. I just want a nice 24" LCD step up from my 20" Viewsonic and I find that it be very nice all around for my needs, I just want more real estate.

And no, I don't give a crap about multi monitor/eyefinity use, one monitor is fine for my needs.
 
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Well as I said before, the coating is only noticeable on solid bright color areas. It doesnt effect readability and you can see lines just fine.

I see myself as having high standards on monitors, especially coming from a exceptional S-PVA (one that seemed to stand out compared to other ones), but im getting used to the tradeoffs.

If you want it perfect, get a Eizo, but expect to pay a grand.
 
senna89 said:
have u any difficolult to text reading and internet browsing ?
for browsing or read since some hours is ideal or not ?
cause any sort of eyestrain this monitor when u look or read for many time ?
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Nope - it is good for reading (even in Portrait mode) / typing / text editing and image editing. This is the primary use I bought this monitor for and so far so good.
 
Freezebyte said:
If im not a avid gamer but I want a nice upgrade from my ViewSonic VX2025wm, would this be worth the cost vs a Dell? I Like I can do Bill me Later on Newegg is why. I honestly don't care about input lag or the color acuraccy like alot of die hard LCD users demand or that the blacks arn't perfect. I won't be watching Blue Ray's on this, mostly video editing with movie maker, web surfing, multitasking and light game like Starcraft 2, Risk, Team Fortress and BF1942 widescreen hacked. I just want a nice 24" LCD step up from my 20" Viewsonic and I find that it be very nice all around for my needs, I just want more real estate.

And no, I don't give a crap about multi monitor/eyefinity use, one monitor is fine for my needs.
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Same boat as you are... I've yet to find a monitor in ~500$ price range that has as good a panel as our viewsonics.

I'd love 24" but not at the cost of color/response performance.
 
My excellent BenQ 24" 1920x1200 FP241W P-MVA monitor is ~4.5 years old and the backlight is starting to flicker a tiny bit occasionally, plus there's a very slight burn-in in one corner. Friend of mine offered me $100 for it so I decided to get a new 1920x1200 24" monitor before this one goes 'plink'.

Got he PA246Q. :) Going from a MVA screen to an IPS screen was a source of some concern, so I went to the Canada Computers store (a 5 minutes walk) to see the particular monitor in action to make sure I don't mind the so-called IPS glow (in the blacks) and that the antiglare coating isn't noticeable.

The only one they had in stock was the one on display, which I had looked at and played with for ~ 10 minutes. Colours are bright and text was sharp. I did not notice the so-called IPS glow on the blacks in the store. Did notice the antiglare coating though, like a faint frosting on the screen. That is one major difference from my current monitor. This coating isn't very thick but I still had reservations about it being too distracting.

Salesman said I can try the monitor for 14 days to see if I can get used to it and, if not, get my money back minus a 5% restocking fee. The salesman also ran Dead Pixel Tester on it in the store and we did not notice any stuck (hot or dead) pixel with this program.

Since this monitor was on display, I got a 5% 'open-box- discount on top of the $35 instant rebate. The fact it's an open-box item does not affect the 14-days money-back garantee. :)

I actually saved ~$60 in total. Plus there's the $100 I'll get for my BenQ. Grabbed the monitor and walked the two city blocks home. Will unpack and set it up tomorrow. Hopefully, after a couple of days I won't see the AG coating anymore. :)

Friend says I can keep my current monitor until I'm sure I'm keeping the new one.
 
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OK. I'm already used to the AG coating. Can only see it occasionally on some tints like beige. Photos and movies look spectacular. Only downside so far is when I play Oblivion. I play in first person and when I move rapidly to look around, the periphery becomes a blur. If I scan near a steeple and move my cursor quickly, I see afterimages. I suppose this is what people call ghosting. :(

Gonna keep trying it for a few days and also revert to my P-MVA on occasion to see if it really is worse for gaming or if I'm imagining stuff. I had been told that IPS would be faster than MVA. Otherwise I'll have to make a decision. The monitor is so great in other respects, the screen is free of defects and I love being able to keep my resolution at 1920x1200 for web browsing and photo editing. If I return it to get my money back and try another model later, like a TN or another MVA, I might get one with stuck pixels, duller colours and probably it would be at 1920x1080.

It's like now I have a luxury car instead of a sports car. Not as good for speeding in curves but better for other stuff. If I keep this and game a bit less, that might be a good lifestyle change and me becoming an adult at 54yo. I do have more photo & video editing to do nowadays but Skyrim is coming this November. Gonna have to weigh it all. :D

I'll have to check the so-called modes though in case one of them does make the gaming experience smoother.
 
denni excuse me but the ag coating that u saw in pa246q cause some difficolu to text reading than your MVA ? ;)
Is your ex MVA slightly easy to read ? or same ?
Have u see some modern TN monitor for compare the coating ?
 
The coating on the PA246Q doesn't affect reading text. I only see it occasionally and part of me reacts like it's just a bit of dust on the screen. Same for my FP241 MVA. I only looked at a couple of TN monitors in the store and the murky colours turned me off immediately so I don't remember what text looked like on those.

Funny thing is, the PA246Q came with the brightness cranked all the way to 80. I have it set at 30, just like the FP241W it is to replace and the colours look pretty much the same except maybe the reds are a tiny bit more vibrant.

The viewing angles on this thing are awesome. :)
 
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ok i interested to a monitor that dont cause eyestrain whit text reading for ag coating ( out of focus text effect ).
 
Here's the individual colour accuracy chart for my monitor. Looks like my delta E is less than 4 for what that's worth.

 
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